Lantern-Under-Ice Market opens beneath the lake: stalls hang from the ice ceiling, merchants sell sealed breaths and cut red wedding knots. The group enters along a narrow bridge.

The Mortal-Fate Dice Swarm appears between market stalls, rattling toward a theater of hanging masks. Lian hears the same click from the oath day.

At a small puppet stage of red thread marionettes, Nian Cixiao appears in true unmasked form. He lounges on the stage beam with dice around him.

Lian confronts Nian directly. Yanluo holds position beside her. Mo and Shuang He stay back among market stalls.

Nian drops a die into the market floor. Old vow coins rattle upward and assemble into a Debt Beast beneath the theater.

The Debt Beast smashes through the puppet stage, scattering masks and lanterns. Nian remains balanced above the chaos, delighted.

Lian and Yanluo attack the Debt Beast from opposite sides. The shared pain makes each impact rebound through both bodies.

Forced to coordinate, Lian and Yanluo time their breathing and attacks. Their qi spirals without blending, like hostile weather sharing one sky.

Their coordinated technique pins the Debt Beast under ice and blood seals. The recoil knocks both to one knee with the same bruising agony.

With the beast pinned, Nian lands lightly before the injured pair. He refuses a simple reversal and explains the oath's duration in terms of payment without revealing who paid.

Nian dissolves into a rain of bone dice and red thread. Lian and Yanluo stand amid the wrecked market, injured, with the answer worse than ignorance.